Chechnya: Name Your Baby Mohammed, Get $1,000

President of Russian republic announces his mother's charity will pay babies named after Mohammed on birthday of Islam's founder.

By Ari Yashar

First Publish: 1/15/2014, 8:48 AM

Muslim mother, baby (file)

Flash 90

The President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, declared Monday that a charity managed by his mother Aimani would pay $1,000 to families naming their infants born that day Mohammed, after the founder of Islam.

The privately sponsored charity decided to give the present in honor of the birthday of Mohammed according to the Sunni sect of Islam, reported Russian news source RIA Novosti.

Kadyrov made the announcement on his Instagram page, adding that babies born that day who were named after any of Mohamed's myriad wives, children, or the ten companions to whom he supposedly promised an afterlife in paradise, would also received $1,000.

Chechnya declared independence from Russia in 1991, leading to a bitter battle with Russian forces. A peace treaty was signed in 1996, but three years later, after Chechen fighters assisted neighboring Dagestan to also gain independence, Russia re-occupied the country. Almost fifteen years of fighting have followed - with thousands of Islamic fighters in the country behind a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Chechnya, Russia and other countries.

The Muslim country has fought against Islamic terror in the past, with one extremist assassinated by the state last October.

Chechnya similarly turned to Israel in 2010 for help in combating terror, including terror by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) group responsible for the Mavi Marmara Flotilla attack in 2010.